Friday, April 01, 2016

Federal Agencies Adopt Final Rules On Partnering With Faith-Based Organization

Following up Notices of Proposed Rulemaking issued last August (see prior posting), yesterday, nine federal agencies published their final regulations implementing Executive Order 13559 that President Obama signed in 2010. That Executive Order approved recommendations of the President's Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Yesterday's 304-page release (full text) titled Fundamental Principles and Policymaking Criteria for Partnerships With Faith-Based and Other Neighborhood Organizations adopts regulations aimed at preventing discrimination and assuring appropriate separation of religion and government. A White House blog post describes the new rules. The regulations:

Require agencies to ensure that all decisions about Federal financial assistance are based solely on merit, without regard to an organization's religious affiliation....

Make clear that faith-based organizations are eligible to participate in federally funded social service programs on the same basis as any other private organization.

Clarify what activities can and cannot be supported with direct Federal financial assistance by replacing use of the term "inherently religious activities" with the term "explicitly religious activities" and providing examples....

Prohibit organizations that receive Federal financial assistance from discriminating against beneficiaries ... based on religion ... or a refusal to attend or participate in a religious practice.

Require faith-based organizations that receive direct Federal financial assistance for domestic social service programs to provide written notice of certain protections to beneficiaries of the program....

In adopting the final regulations, the agencies refused to either broadly prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of religion by all recipients of Federal grants, or to clarify that such faith-based hiring is permissible. The Hill reports on the new rules.